An entity, such as a corporation, may wish to obtain information about individuals, such as customers. For example, a corporation may wish to obtain information about purchasing habits of individuals so that the corporation can stock merchandise that is desirable to these individuals.
Corporations may hire polling agencies to conduct surveys of consumers to obtain information about their purchasing habits. Polling agencies may telephone consumers or may send written questionnaires to consumers to obtain information about consumers' recent purchases. Preparing survey questions and questionnaires, conducting the surveys, and processing survey results may be time consuming. In addition, obtaining information from consumers via surveys may be error prone because a consumer may exaggerate his/her answers, may not completely recall his/her purchases, etc. As a result, corporations may experience difficulty in getting accurate purchasing information from consumers.